Ludumo Galada

Ludumo Galada came from the Mdantsane Township outside East London and first represented South Africa at senior level at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester where he was defeated in the quarter-finals of the bantamweight division. The following year he won the silver medal at the African Zone 6 (Southern Africa) championship and a bronze at the Commonwealth Boxing Championships in Malaysia. After narrowly missing Olympic qualification via the first African qualifier he sealed his place in Athens by the reaching the final of the second qualifying tournament. Galada’s Olympic adventure did not last long as suffered a third round stoppage defeat.

He defended his Zone 6 title on home soil in March 2005 but afterwards elected to turn professional. Galada won the South African title in 2007 and then after three defences of that title was matched against David Kiilu of Kenya for the minor World Boxing Foundation featherweight title. The fight lasted last two and a half minutes with Galada emerging victorious. Galada made one defence of the belt but in January 2009 whilst returning home in the early hours of the morning from visiting his sick brother in Johannesburg he suffered fatal injuries when his car left the road near Aliwal North.